Member-only story
CGM — Continuous Glucose Monitor
As I Stumble Through the Directions
This, I decided, was going to be a Public Service Announcement. It’s for people with diabetes who are wearing a CGM, which in long-word English is a Continuous Glucose Monitor. Until now, for the last 25 years, I would test my blood glucose twice a day, in the morning when I got up and at night before I went to bed. It went up. It went down. What could be simpler?
Then, every three months, I’d go off to the lab where they would draw my blood and test it for whatever they needed, and one of those readings was my A1C, which is a level for your blood glucose averaged over several months.
In September my CGM arrived. As advertised, there is almost a minute-by-minute recording of what my blood sugar is doing. My doctor set the whole thing up. It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon (Oct 25) that I put it on. I wasn’t exactly frightened, though I was unsure of myself. Turns out I should have read the instructions. At least, better than I did.
It came with a quick-start picture guide. Then, there was a more extensive, smaller user guide, and then there was the big fat book. Still small, but half an inch thick. I read the first two. The advice I would give you is to read at least some of the third book.
